


Turn Off Your Porcelain Face

by AngelWithAStory



Category: Critical Role (Web Series), Critical Role: Wildemount Campaign (Web Series)
Genre: Carrying, Drabble, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Found Family, Pre-Stream (Critical Role), caleb wiDADgast amiright
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 09:24:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13384887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelWithAStory/pseuds/AngelWithAStory
Summary: “Are you okay?”Caleb’s hands were gripping Nott’s shoulders and her eyes were trying so hard to focus on his face. She blinked a few times and let the world come back into clarity.One of the first things that came back to her was the smell. The air smelled of singed hair and Nott couldn’t see any burn marks on her friend. The second thing that fell into place was the silence.SPOILERS FOR THE NEXT CAMPAIGN





	Turn Off Your Porcelain Face

**Author's Note:**

> title from This Is Home by Cavetown (which is now my Caleb song forever) (highly recommend listening to it whilst reading)
> 
> this happened bc i wanted to read more caleb & nott interactions being cute and all that good good found family content. and since i am my own worst enemy i wrote this instead of revising for my Sustainability exam in two days oh well

“Are you okay?”

Caleb’s hands were gripping Nott’s shoulders and her eyes were trying so hard to focus on his face. She blinked a few times and let the world come back into clarity.

One of the first things that came back to her was the smell. The air smelled of singed hair and Nott couldn’t see any burn marks on her friend. The second thing that fell into place was the silence.

“What… What happened?” Nott’s voice was small and all she could feel was a tiredness in her bones.

Caleb’s shoulders fell and he hung his head. Nott was nervous for a moment until he looked back up and she could see the relief written on every inch of his face.

“We were ambushed. I thought- I thought the worst had happened.” Caleb said. He still hadn’t let go of Nott’s shoulders. He didn’t want to let go just yet.

“Do you think they knew-?” Nott tried to ask, but Caleb was already shaking his head.

“No. No, I think we were just unlucky that they saw us out here.” He said. “Come on, there’s a town not too far from here. Let’s get a room for the night.”

Nott wanted to protest - they needed to save their money, it was already late, it wouldn’t be worth it - but all her energy was gone. So she let Caleb gently lift her off the ground and tuck her against his chest.

They didn’t have much, so it didn’t take long for Caleb to start walking along in the direction of the closest town they knew of.

It also didn’t take long for Nott to fall asleep his shoulder, his arms holding her close enough to share heartbeats.

 

No one bothered a second glance at the man in the long coat, cradling the small figure in his arms. No one looked close enough to see the edge of the mask over the girl’s face or beyond the hood pulled low her her eyes.

The innkeeper only smiled as she handed over the key to the room, thinking that this man was nothing more than a tired father looking for a safe place to let his child sleep. She swallowed the half-truth Caleb told her when pressed and said no more when he left to retire for the night.

*

“Caleb, we’ve been walking for _days_.”

Nott’s voice echoed off the trees as they walked and Caleb smiled. The sunlight above them dappled patterns on the forest floor and swayed hypnotically with the wind. The temperature was warming as spring shifted into summer, and Caleb almost found himself enjoying this moment.

“I know, Nott.” Caleb said, more a reflex than anything. He debated pulling the book out of his bag to read as they walked, but Nott lightly punching his leg stopped that train of thought quite quickly.

“How far until the next town?” Nott asked, almost ( _almost_ ) dragging her pack along the ground in protest.

“A few more days, I think.” Caleb said, a note of apology in his voice.

“Can we at least slow down? My legs aren’t as long as yours!” Nott complained, more for the sake of filling the silence than anything else.

“The faster we walk, the faster we get to the next town.” Caleb said, pointedly ignoring how his tone reminded him of his own father.

Nott tucked her hands into her pockets and kicked a small rock. Then she reached into her bag and took a brief swig of something from her bottle. Caleb didn’t like how empty it sounded.

He ran a hand over his tired eyes and briefly flicked his hair away from his eyes.  

“Would you stop complaining if I carried you?” Caleb said, keeping one eye on their path and one on his companion.

He tried not to smile at the look on Nott’s face.

“You sure?” Nott asked.

“I wouldn’t have asked if I wasn’t.” Caleb said. “I’ll give you a piggyback until we find camp for the night, how about that? Deal?” He held out his hand towards Nott.

“Deal!” Nott said, quickly shaking his hand. “No takebacksies.” she said, as she barely waited for Caleb to crouch down before clambouring up and locking her legs and arms around him.

“You ready?” Caleb asked, balancing a little precariously. When he stood, it took a moment to adjust to the weight.

Then all that was left was to keep walking.

It was slow progress, and Caleb could guess that Nott was certainly getting the better end of the deal, but still he kept moving.

Slow, but steady progress. At least until the sun began to dip below the horizon and the light filtering through the trees turned the leaves gold and red. Then Caleb searched for a secluded clearing to put down the Goblin girl and start making their camp for the night.

*

“Caleb?”

Caleb blinked slowly, trying to pull himself back into the present.

They were in one of their rented rooms in a rundown inn in some town that neither of them would remember in a few days when they left it.

He was sat against the headboard, a book open in his lap as he tried to absorb the last of the words.  

“Yeah? Sorry, Nott, I was just thinking.” Caleb said. He looked at where Nott had curled up on the bed. “What’s wrong?”

“I was going to say thank you for helping me steal that lady’s ring today.” Nott said, not raising her head from where it was leaning on her forearm.

Caleb smiled a gentle smile. Maybe there was a time when he would have that ‘ _what an odd thing to be thankful for_ ’, but now he could read between the lines enough to understand.

“Well, we’re better together. If you need to steal something, I just want to make sure you don’t get caught.” Caleb’s voice was quiet, as it usually was. But it was also softer now.

“Thank you, Caleb.” Nott said. She yawned, trying to cover it with the back of her hand.

“Get some sleep, Nott.” Caleb said, “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Nott yawned again. Then there was a moment of stillness, before she crawled up the bed and settled down next to Caleb, resting her head on the pillow.

“Night, Caleb.” She murmured, turning over and falling still.

“Goodnight, Nott.” Caleb whispered, shutting his book and tucking it back into its holster.

Carefully, he rearranged himself so he was lying down, wrapping Nott in the sheets as he did so. Then, he reached over and extinguished the candle he was reading by.

“ _Sleep well, little one_.” He whispered into the dark.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm [queenmoggy](http://queenmoggy.tumblr.com/) on tumblr if you want to also experience the flood of critical role posts that happened every thursday/friday-ish (if i don't fall behind on the eps oops)
> 
> also shoutout to [C-chan](http://archiveofourown.org/users/1001paperboxes/pseuds/C-chan) bc their comment on wanting more caleb & nott hugs spurred me on with this a lot (there still wasn't many cuddles i'm sorry)


End file.
